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Basic Intergluteal Numismatics
Plot In the Greendale cafeteria, a ribbon cutting ceremony is being held for the reopening of "Shirley's Sandwiches". Shirley takes in the applause from the crowd before introducing her sons who sing a special song for the occasion. Over in the hallway, Garrett struggles to open his locker and ends up dropping several folders on the ground. After he bends over to pick them up, a hoodied figure approaches, holding out a quarter in gloved hands. A moment later, Garrett burst into the cafeteria and alerts everyone that the Ass Crack Bandit has returned. The next day, Dean Pelton holds a press conference to answer questions about what happened . Despite evidence to the contrary, he takes the school's official position that the latest occurrence is not related to similar incidents which took place a year ago. Later in Group Study Room F, Pelton admits to the Save Greendale Committee that the bandit did in fact send the school a letter about his activities. He introduces the just returned Professor Ian Duncan with whom he tasked with creating a psychological profile of the culprit. Despite Pelton's attempt to involve him, Jeff remains unconcerned about the bandit. Later, Annie goes to Jeff's office and shows him a map of previous "crackings". The proximity of the attacks hint that the Bandit could be a member of the faculty as he would need access to the teachers lounge to reach his targets. Annie asks for Jeff's help knowing that Pelton won't pursue this line of enquiry but he believes the matter to be unimportant. At that moment, Troy arrives in a seemingly deserted study room when he hears a sound. He turns back to the room and notices that a teddy bear has appeared on the ground. As he bends down to pick it up, the Ass Crack Bandit strikes again. Afterwards, Buzz Hickey's criminology class inspects the study room for clues and finds another poorly-written note taunting the Dean's efforts to identify the bandit. Annie reveals her suspicions to the Dean that its a teacher but he refuses to listen and kicks her out of the crime scene. Jeff finds Annie in the student lounge still fuming about her theory being rejected. After seeing how important the investigation has become to her he finally offers to help. Several days later, A cultural shift has occurred at Greendale in response to the return of the ACB: coins are banned from the campus, preventative pamphlets, posters and fliers are everywhere, and students wear anti-ACB slogan t-shirts while living in constant fear. Some are profiting from the change; Leonard sells "safety pants" (overalls) at an inflated price while Shirley's Sandwiches rounds all prices to the dollar. At a meeting of the Save Greendale Committee, Duncan, Brit and Abed fail to provide useful tips on how to find the . A desperate Pelton decides to dress Ben Chang in a costume designed to make it look like he is facing the opposite direction. ruse which would allow him to see the bandit coming Elsewhere, Jeff and Annie are doing their own investigation analyzing the content of the bandits note. At first, Jeff dismisses notices several lyrical references to Dave Matthews Band songs. Annie then uses Facebook to build a list of faculty members who are fans of the band and finds eight such suspects. Meanwhile in the cafeteria, Troy speaks at a students assembly advocating Dean Pelton's latest plan to put cameras in all the bathrooms. As the assembly continues, Vicki and another student sitting on the bleachers are assaulted by the bandit who is under the stands. All the students panic and chaos ensues. Meanwhile, Annie and Jeff meet after each eliminating a teacher from their suspects. They approach the next candidate on the list, Professor Bublitz, but he bolts when they attempt to question him. In pursuing him, they knock over several shelves full of plants and other materials and finally corner him in the back of his room. However, they discover he was only attempting to escape because he was growing a cannabis sativa plant. It's then that Pelton bursts in with news of the latest crackings but stops when he sees the destruction in the wake of the chase. In his office, Pelton reprimands Jeff and Annie for destroying school property and secretly investigating Greendale's faculty. He questions the real reason behind their investigation suggesting they are using it as a cover to spend time together. As punishment for their actions he suspends Annie from school and makes Jeff the new water polo head coach. It's then that Pelton receives a call from the ACB who continues to taunt him as Jeff and Annie listen in on another phone. They attempt to get more information but the call quickly ends. The phone shows that the call came from extension 594 which corresponds to the campus stables. Jeff, Annie and Dean Pelton soon arrive at the stables and see that somebody has been living there. A dark figure crosses the back of the room and flees when he sees the trio. They give chase and find Star-Burns ineffectively trying to escape on a child's wagon pulled by three cats. At another press conference, Pelton announces that Star-Burns has confessed to the crimes and, to much applause, pronounces the case closed. He then invites everyone to the official We Caught the Ass Crack Bandit Dance in the cafeteria that evening, prompting more applause. Jeff, the only one not clapping, storms out and Annie follows him. He argues that Star-Burns can't be the bandit since he's not a teacher but Annie is satisfied to just put the whole thing behind her. She also suggests that the Dean may have been right about their relationship and implores him to let both issues drop. At the hastily organized dance, Star-Burns stands caged in the middle of the cafeteria as students celebrate by hitting him with coins and Jeff looks on grimly. Walking the halls, Annie sees Professor Duncan in his office and wonders why he isn't at the dance. They begin to talk but Duncan silences her as a Dave Matthews Band song comes on the radio proclaiming himself a huge Dave fan. The same song plays in the cafeteria and Star-Burns asks for Jeff's help in identifying the familiar tune. Now certain that the ACB is still at large, Jeff questions Star-burns, who admits that Dean Pelton got him to confess as the bandit in exchange for dropping the meth charges. He also reveals that the phone call that led to the stables didn't come from him. Back in Duncan's office, the Psychology Professor regales Annie with tales of his Dave concert experiences and mentions that he uses a British social networking site instead of Facebook. Annie notices a roll of quarters on a filing cabinet and quickly excuses herself to leave despite Duncan's objections. As she turns to go, she drops her keys. Duncan seems transfixed as Annie slides the keys up the wall with her foot and manages to grab them without bending over. She rushes off to find Jeff who has discovered a laptop connected to the school's automated switchboard. It displays a recording of the bandit's phone call to the Dean, indicating the phone call was staged. Annie tells Jeff that Duncan is the bandit and they attempt to find him in the smoke-filled hallways but become separated. Duncan also enters the hallways but bends over to tie his shoelace and falls prey to the ACB. Hearing Duncan get cracked they struggle to find one another and the bandit but manage to see the bandit flee around a corner. As they make the turn they are stopped by Shirley with some startling news: Pierce is dead. Rather than continuing after the bandit, they meet with the rest of the study group to comfort each other. As they exit the Library the next morning, Jeff and Annie muse on the unpredictability of life and rue the missed opportunity to apprehend the bandit. Annie starts to walk away and Jeff calls out that he suspects "he" will return. Annie responds, "Or her." They both freeze as it dawns on both of them that the ACB might be female. A montage of scenes rolls of various characters acting suspiciously. Britta begins a paper on the criminal but writes "Britta" instead of "Bandit" before correcting the mistake; Abed adeptly rolls a quarter on his fingers as he deletes episodes of crime shows from his DVR; Shirley is shown counting her money after profiting from Greendale's no-change policy; Professor Hickey looks at a newspaper clipping of a serial killer who was never caught; a cafeteria worker shiftily looks right and left; Pelton plays a quarters drinking game with his assistant, Rhonda, who is particularly skillful with the coins. Jeff and Annie then look suspiciously at each other before waving goodbye. End Tag Star-Burns promotes his cat car idea as an environmentally friendly form of transportation in a crowdfunding promo video. Clues Letter: “''I am the Ass Crack Bandit. Humans make better banks than piggies. Whenever I get more change at the store I can't wait to drop it down your butts. I think I will go to the bank and get so much change and take all my dollars and make them into change and drop it all down there.” '''Note 1:' "I hope you enjoyed my work again. You can't stop me because what are you going to do, not have butts?" Note 2: "I am the mad hatter, if hats were butts. I am neither left nor right. I am the space between. To me you are all like ants marching to class, freaks on parade." Phone call/recording: "This is the Ass Crack Bandit. I find it funny that you ever thought you could catch me." "I've enjoyed our game of cat and mouse. It's funny how close your two little helpers get to catching me. I liked watching them run in circles. Although sometimes I wonder, are they chasing me as an excuse to get near to each other? I mean, get a room already." "I am the bringer of change. I am the filler of cracks." Recurring themes Continuity *'Previously:' **The "Ass Crack Bandit" was first mentioned in the Season Two episode "Intro to Political Science". Annie was running for student body president at the time and apprehending the bandit was one of the major campaign promises she made. **Garrett has a Hawthorne Gaming Technologies sticker on his locker, a reference to the Season Three episode Digital Estate Planning. **Troy walks by a poster featuring a hot air balloon, similar to the one that initiated the events of the Season Four episode Intro to Felt Surrogacy. **The Greendale student newspaper, "The Greendale Gazette Journal Mirror", first featured in the Season One episode "Investigative Journalism" has now split into the "Greendale Gazette" and the "Greendale Mirror" **On his radio show, Neil honors the passing of Pierce Hawthorne and mentions the game they played in the Season Two episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". *'Returning students:' Star-Burns makes his return in this episode after having faked his death in the Season Three episode "Basic Lupine Urology". Garrett appears and loudly warns the other students about the "Ass Crack Bandit". Vicki makes her first appearance of Season Five. Leonard and Neil also make appearances. *'Googly eyes:' **Dean Pelton and even the Ass Crack Bandit comment on the nature of Jeff and Annie's relationship. **Professor Duncan makes several advances on Britta. *'Returning faculty:' Ian Duncan returns after a long absence from the show. He was last seen in the Season Two episode "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts". *'First appearance:' Professor Bublitz is portrayed by musician Ben Folds. *'School supplies': The Radio flyer red wagon that Star-Burns uses for his cat chariot is the same one used in the Puppy Parade from the Season Two episode end tag of "Cooperative Calligraphy" Running gags *'Butt stuff:' Troy is victimized by the "Ass Crack Bandit". *'It's a mixer:' Dean Pelton suggests, “Abed, you're special. Can't you just stand at the scene of the crime and see what happened?” *'Man crush:' Dean Pelton makes Jeff coach of the water polo team with plans to be Jeff's assistant coach. Pop culture references *'TV guide:' Abed's DVR shows that he recorded popular shows such as The Bridge and Hannibal. *'Name that tune:' **Shirley's boys sing Creep by Radiohead at the grand re-opening of her new shop at Greendale. **The ACB seems to be a fan of Dave Matthews Band. One of his notes references the songs The Space Between and Ants Marching. Ants Marching plays later in the episode. **The song Ass Crack Bandit is heard early on in the episode and then later at the end. It was written for the episode by Ben Folds, who has a brief part in the episode as Professor Bublitz. *'Shout out:' Not being a “real fan” Star-Burns mistakes the epithet "Dave" for David Lee Roth. Meta references *'Use your allusion:' "Numismatics" is the study or collection of currency including paper money and coins. "Intergluteal" means something inbetween the muscles which make up the buttocks. The episode title , "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics", refers directly to the Ass Crack Bandit's M.O. which is to drop quarters into the space separating the two major muscles of his victims gluteal region. *'Homage:' This episode pays homage to numerous genres of film as well as specific movies and TV shows. **Much of the episode strongly parallels the 2007 film Zodiac, which follows a political cartoonist who becomes obsessed with identifying a serial killer in the San Francisco area. **The opening credits is a homage to the 2002 adaptation of Red Dragon. **Several scenes, most notably Troy's cracking, evoke death scenes in slasher films such as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. *'Up against a wall:' Ian Duncan explains his long absence from the school by saying he had to care for his sick mother. Fans of Community have long wondered why the character didn't appear in any episodes after being a series regular for the first two seasons. *'Parody:' **Abed repeatedly drapes a blanket around Troy's shoulders and hands him a styrofoam cup before saying, "This is how they comfort victims in movies." **Professor Duncan's and Britta's analysis of the bandit poke fun at the sometimes scattershot nature of criminal profiling. **Abed's speech at the scene of the crime mimics many fictitious criminal profilers, such as Will Graham, and is also a critique of formulaic procedural/crime drama TV shows. **Troy's confrontation with Star-Burns at the press conference is similar to a scene in Jaws where the mother of a shark victim slaps Police Chief Brody after learning he didn't close the beaches after an earlier attack. Quotes Production Production for this episode used the title "What's in the Hat?" on its clapperboard. This follows the the theme of hat-based puns throughout Season Five's production titles. Gallery Commercial Promotional photos 5x01_Promo_1.jpg 5x03_Promo_2.jpg 5x03_Promo_3.jpg 5x03_Promo_4.jpg 5x03_Promo_5.jpg 5x03_Promo_6.jpg 5x03_Promo_7.jpg 5x03_Promo_8.jpg Category:Community Episodes Category:Season 5 Episodes